Bankers, get ready, there's a gravy train a-comin'

The old M&A cash register has been ringing loudly across the pond, but what's the outlook for Europe? My colleague, currently listening to the Telecom Italia conference call, just leaned over and said that TI management are looking for acquisitions to grow in the French broadband market. She then pointed out that the company is due EUR1bn for Latin American disposals in a few months' time. They could do a lot with EUR1bn, or thereabouts (and a previous Bloomberg story has linked them to a potential purchase of Tiscali France. TI also unveiled plans to launch 4Mbps DSL with the modem and a DTT tuner residing in the same box (as I have long expected) in four cities, expanding to 20 by year-end.